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The candidate next door: Meet the Germantown man running for president

Like many Americans, Horace Taylor has found himself frustrated with the state of national politics in recent years.

Since President Donald Trump’s election, the Germantown resident has felt let down by officeholders from both major political parties. He said Republicans haven’t stood up against things the president has done or said that he found distressing and Democrats have wasted too much time talking and not spent enough time actually doing the jobs they were elected to do.

“I cannot stand what is happening on a national discourse level. It’s crazy,” he said. “I can’t believe that the president is doing what he is doing, saying what he is saying, and almost nothing is being done about it.”

But instead of stewing in his own anger, the military veteran decided to take another path and launch a bid for president as an independent.

Horace Taylor, a Germantown resident who plans to run for president as an independent, sits in his home Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020.(Photo: Ariel Cobbert/The Commercial Appeal)

Taylor, 57, gets visibly animated when he talks about his presidential platform. He wants to change the way Americans talk to one another, emphasizing respect, civility and compassion across political divides, and his eyes light up even more when the talk turns to cybersecurity.

He can meander through conversations, getting lost down thought tangents as he talks through his military career and his political aspirations, but he remains grounded in reality.

“I operate not under any illusion that I’m going to win. But I’m running to win,” he said. “I won’t quit. I won’t tank my campaign until the election is over.”

'I'm doing it all by myself'

Taylor grew up in South Memphis and enlisted in the Army in 1981, about a year after graduating from high school. His three-decade military career would see him stationed in Georgia, California, Hawaii, New Jersey, Colorado and Germany — with a three-year break in the early 1990s to attend Memphis State University, where he completed a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering and technology — before he retired from active duty in 2012.

He continued to work with the military after retirement, both as a defense contractor and as a civilian working for the Defense Department, specializing in cybersecurity. Taylor worked in Colorado Springs, Colorado, until a desire to be closer to home brought him to the naval base in Millington in 2014. He would end up back in Colorado briefly before taking a New York-based job that allowed him to work remotely from the Memphis area. Eventually, he returned to the same position he had vacated at the base in Millington in November 2018.

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Horace Taylor, a Germantown resident who plans to run for president as an independent, sits in his home Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020.(Photo: Ariel Cobbert/The Commercial Appeal)

In March, after talking with his wife and four children, he left that job again, this time to focus on his presidential campaign.

“Cybersecurity is good, it has paid the bills,” he remembered telling his boss. “But there is something more to this.”

Taylor didn’t know exactly what that would look like for him, but he said he felt compelled to do something. He started reading articles and watching YouTube videos about campaigning and how to qualify for the ballot in different states. He sought the advice of local elected officials and attended a two-day Federal Election Commission training in Chicago.

He has started making videos with a lighting kit he bought years ago, has been delivering speeches at local community centers and has put together press releases with an online template he found. Taylor is looking for volunteers but said it’s been difficult to attract campaign helpers when he can’t afford to pay them.

“I’m doing it all by myself,” he said. “I don’t have the Bloomberg dollars or the Clinton cash.”

Since he quit his job to pursue his presidential bid — the Hatch Act prohibits many federal employees from overt political activity — his wife has been working as a teacher and he has tried to supplement her income by day trading. FEC filings indicate Taylor received $150 in donations from May 23 to Sept. 30.

Social media boost

Taylor acknowledged running as an independent made an already difficult task even more trying, and he’ll have plenty of competition. According to the FEC, 1,019 people are running for president of the United States, including write-in candidates, independent candidates, candidates from smaller political parties and candidates from the two major parties, as of Jan. 27.

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Germantown resident Horace Taylor plans to run for president as an independent.(Photo: Ariel Cobbert/The Commercial Appeal)

But he resisted the notion that non-conventional presidential campaigns were inherently doomed.

“I think it’s as realistic as Ross Perot’s were. Granted Ross Perot, like Mike Bloomberg, like (Tom) Steyer, like President Trump, are big, big money guys. I don’t have that,” he said. “But we are in the information age now. The fact that we are in the information age and social media is what it is, I still believe that I can take advantage.”

Taylor believes social media and a robust online presence can help bridge the gap between himself and bigger-name candidates. His website is the one big campaign expense he’s paid for, rather than trying to do it himself. And he knows that if he made it onto Trump’s radar somehow, one tweet from the president could garner him more publicity than the most expertly crafted campaign advertisement could ever buy.

But whether or not a viral moment comes, Taylor acknowledges one of the biggest hurdles will be making sure voters can actually select his name on the first Tuesday in November. Getting on the ballot in all 50 states is one of his main goals and one of his campaign’s biggest hurdles. Each state sets its own rules for how candidates qualify for the ballot.

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Horace Taylor, a Germantown resident who plans to run for president as an independent, sits in his home Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020.(Photo: Ariel Cobbert/The Commercial Appeal)

According to the Tennessee Secretary of State’s Office, to qualify for the presidential ballot as in independent, a candidate must gather at least 275 signatures from registered Tennessee voters from May 22 to Aug. 20. In addition, independent presidential candidates must include the name of their running mate — Taylor thinks Bloomberg would be a good running mate, but acknowledges the former New York City mayor might not be interested — and the names of 11 electors who agree to represent the candidate.

Taylor is still working to figure out the requirements of each state and how he's going to jump through all the hoops required to get his name in front of voters.

Policy proposals

Taylor is still working to refine his platform into a format that is easy to deliver and easy for voters to digest. But should he be elected, Taylor said cybersecurity will be his top priority. He also emphasized restoring civility in the national public discourse, strengthening American partnerships and restructuring foreign policy priorities in Africa and expanding the Affordable Care Act to include a public option.

Long term, Taylor said he supports transitioning to a single-payer health care system because of what he — and many liberal candidates and political pundits — described as “socialism for the corporations and capitalism for us little people.” He specifically singled out farm subsidies and the auto industry bailout, saying the federal government has often provided lifelines to business communities while regular people struggled to make ends meet.

While he differs from Trump on many policy issues, he said he did draw inspiration from the president in at least one way.

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Horace Taylor, a Germantown resident who plans to run for president as an independent, sits in his home Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020.(Photo: Ariel Cobbert/The Commercial Appeal)

“I said, ‘Heck, if he can do it, I know I can do it,’ ” he said. “I’m like the polar opposite of this guy. He’s the millionaire, I have no money. He wished or wanted to play like he was in the military. He went off to boarding school, and they wore uniforms. I, in fact, had to go to the military.”

Taylor believes that military experience sets him apart and said it is what compelled him to run for president rather than another office — though he did consider a bid for Memphis mayor when he first returned to the Mid-South after retiring from the Army. Taylor said serving as an officer let him see the impacts of policy and presidential decision-making on a big scale and that his work gave him a window into government and politics within the U.S. and around the world.

At the heart of his platform is a desire to “restore civility and respect” in national politics and rebuild public trust in government. Taylor said his presidential bid has been met with skepticism, and he can understand why.

“It’s like the old saying, ‘How do you eat an elephant?’ One bite at a time,” he said, laughing.

In his quest to change American political discourse, running for president is Taylor’s first bite.

Corinne Kennedy is a reporter for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached via email at Corinne.Kennedy@CommercialAppeal.com or on Twitter @CorinneSKennedy.

Fun facts

Germantown resident Horace Taylor has launched a presidential bid as an independent. Here are a few fun facts about Taylor.

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